Captain Orpita Pal scored a hat-trick as Bangladesh women’s team held Chinese Taipei to a 5-5 draw in their Pool A match of the Women’s Asian Games 2026 Qualifiers at the GBK Hockey Field in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Thursday.

Apart from midfielder Orpita, forwards Airin Akter Riya and Kona Akter scored once each in Bangladesh women’s hockey team’s first game in international circuit.

Yu-Ting Huang scored a brace while Yi-Chun Zhu, Hui-Yun Fan and Pei-Shan Liao scored once each for Chinese Taipei.

Riya gave Bangladesh the lead from a penalty corner in the eighth minute, only to see Zhu equalise just a minute later with a field goal.

Bangladesh regained the lead with Orpita scoring from a penalty corner in the 10th minute and extending the margin to 3-1 by converting a penalty stroke in the 17th minute.

Chinese Taipei returned to the game with Pei-Shan Liao converting a penalty stroke in the 23rd minute before Hui-Yun Fan scored a field goal in the 29th minute to make it 3-3 at the half-time break.

In the third quarter, Bangladesh went 5-3 down as Yu-Ting Huang scored from a penalty corner in the 34th minute before scoring another field goal in the 36th minute for Chinese Taipei.

Bangladesh handled the pressure and equalised through Kona’s field goal in the 40th minute, before Orpita completed her hat-trick from a penalty corner in the 44th minute.

In their other two games of Pool A, Bangladesh will play against Uzbekistan today before facing Hong Kong on April 26.

Pool B of the eight-team qualifiers tournament comprises Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Singapore and Sri Lanka.

The top two teams from each pool will advance to the semi-finals and confirm their berths to the Asian Games in Japan.